IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology

eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308

DESIGN & SIMULATION OF LOW LOSS CIRCULAR CORRUGATED

WAVEGUIDE FOR 42 GHZ, 200KW GYROTRON
Jinal A. Mistry1, S. V. Kulkarni2, Shobhit K. Patel3, Kunal S. Kadiya4
1

M.Tech Student, Chandubhai S Patel Institute of Technology, Gujarat, India

2
Scientist, ICRH, Institute for Plasma Research, Gujarat, India
3
Assistant Professor, EC Dept., Chandubhai S Patel Institute of Technology, Gujarat, India
4
Assistant Professor, DT Dept., SMC College of Dairy Science, AAU, Anand, Gujarat, India

Abstract
Corrugated waveguide is used to transmit high power microwave from the microwave devices like Gyrotron. HE11 mode has the
lowest loss and is a fundamental mode of corrugated waveguide. Corrugated waveguides have proved to be the most efficient
waveguides for transmitting high power GHz & THz radiation compared to smooth wall circular waveguide at the operational
frequency of the transmission line. This work includes the simulation of circular corrugated waveguide for 42 GHz Gyrotron and also
includes the simulation comparison of corrugated metallic waveguide with smooth wall cylinder using HFSS (high frequency
structural simulator) software.

Keywords: Corrugated waveguide, Gyrotron, HE11 hybrid mode, HFSS.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------***----------------------------------------------------------------------1. INTRODUCTION
Transmission of high power microwave radiation is a growing
research area due to the increased availability of high power
microwave sources. Developing low loss transmission lines is
especially important when dealing with high average powers,
which can damage components if are not properly designed
[1]. Transmission lines are used to transmit power in
electromagnetic waves from one point to another.
Transmission of high power microwave radiation is a
challenging task due to the lossy nature of most fundamental
mode transmission lines at such high frequencies. In lowpower experiments, simple smooth wall cylindrical
waveguides are useful, but when considering the transmission
of high power (in MW) for long distances, traditional methods
will be insufficient due to large attenuation, mode conversion,
beam scattering the possibility of microwave breakdowns, and
high heating which can lead to failures in the transmission
system. An overmoded approach to transmission lines has
been demonstrated as an efficient and practical solution for
high power microwave applications [2].
The Gyrotron is a high power microwave tube, which emits
coherent radiation at approximately the electron cyclotron
frequency or its harmonics. Gyrotron is widely used in plasma
fusions, ECRH heating, industrial heating and high
temperature processing of materials. Gyrotron oscillators are
mainly important in magnetic fusion experiments. Gyrotron
technology has significantly advanced towards meeting the
goals of providing a reliable and highly efficient source of
high-power microwave radiation.

The most common approach is the use of overmoded

waveguides, in which the guide radius is much larger than the
wavelength. Such waveguides can be corrugated metallic
waveguides, dielectric waveguides or dielectric lined metallic
waveguides. Free space beaming and corrugated waveguides
are closely related as the fundamental HE11 mode used in
corrugated waveguides has a conversion efficiency of 98% to
the Gaussian beam which is used in quasi-optical transmission
[1]. Overmoded metallic circumferentially corrugated
cylindrical waveguides have been shown to have low
attenuation over long distances, but may result in high
amounts of mode conversion and large losses due to
misalignment or manufacturing errors. Decreasing the
attenuation and mode conversion in high power experiments is
necessary for the integrity of the transmission system as well
as the success of the experiment, particularly when
transmission over long distances is necessary [2].

1.1 Need of Corrugated Waveguide

Following are the advantages of the HE11 mode through a
circular corrugated waveguide:
1) Efficient plasma heating requires axis-symmetric
narrow pencil beam with well-defined polarization
incident on the plasma, the almost perfectly linearly
polarized HE11 hybrid mode satisfy these condition
best.
2) Low transmission loss & Large bandwidth in HE11
3) Mode conversion loss at miter bends for HE11 is only
about 35% to that for TE01. The HE11 mode is better

__________________________________________________________________________________________
Volume: 03 Issue: 05 | May-2014, Available @ http://www.ijret.org

220

IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology

4)

5)

6)

separated from competing modes, so propagation is

less sensitive to wall distortions [3].
The HE11 mode at open-ended corrugated waveguide
couples directly to the fundamental free space Gaussian
mode with less than 2% loss over wide bandwidths [3].
HE11 mode, the fundamental mode for corrugated
waveguides, has power concentrated in the center and
small fields at the walls of the waveguide, whereas
TE01 and TM11 have the lowest loss modes for smooth
wall waveguides and have power that is off-center and
more susceptible to losses due to fields present at the
walls [2].
For oversized smooth-wall circular waveguide, the
lowest loss mode is TE01, which is not the fundamental
mode. This property leads to the danger of mode
conversion to lower order modes that are hard to filter
out. Also, the TE01 mode is degenerative with the TM11
mode, increasing the possibility of mode conversion to
an undesirable mode. On the other hand, corrugated
cylindrical waveguides have the lowest loss in the
fundamental HE11 mode, reducing the concerns for
mode conversion to degenerate with lower order modes
[2]. Corrugated waveguides have been used in a variety
of applications for the transmission of GHz radiation
for spectroscopic and plasma heating experiments.

eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308

Fig-1: Block diagram of design flow from gyrotron output to

the Tokamak / dummy load
Fig. 1 shows the conversion of TE-03 mode to HE-11 mode
and then transmission of microwave power from gyrotron to
either tokamak or HE-11 dummy load. In this work we present
the design & simulation of circular corrugated waveguide of
63.5mm diameter for 42GHz, 200kW gyrotron. The diameter
63.5mm is chosen to make it compatible with inner diameter
of miter bend.

2. DESIGN OF HIGH POWER LOW LOSS

CIRCULAR CORRUGATED WAVEGUIDE

1.2 Brief Introduction of Corrugated Waveguide for

42 GHz, 200kw Gyrotron
The gyrotron has become an integral part of the fusion
reactors for pre-ionization, current start-up, heating, current
drive and for stabilizing neo-classical tearing modes etc. The
required frequency of gyrotron lies in the range of 42 GHz to
170 GHz and depends upon the toroidal magnetic field of the
tokamak. The power requirement also varies according to
tokamak and final requirement is from 5 MW to 20 MW. The
five organizations of India are developing 42 GHz, 200 kW
gyrotron as a part of indigenous development and IPR is
involved with the project with major responsibilities as well is
the end user of the gyrotron for doing physics experiments on
tokamaks ADITYA and SST-1.

Fig -2: Illustration of circular corrugated waveguide [1]

Fig. 2 shows a schematic of a circular corrugated waveguide
with rectangular grooves. To design corrugated waveguide for
low losses, the radius a should be much larger than a
wavelength , the corrugations are optimized when the groove
depth d / 4, period p / 3 and groove width w p / 2.
The corrugation tooth thickness is denoted by t = p-w [1].
Using above criteria we have calculated the design parameters
for the circular corrugated waveguide and are given in Table
1.
Table 1: Calculated Design parameters of circular corrugated
waveguide
Sr.
No.
1
2
3
4

Parameter

Value

Operating frequency (f)

Wavelength ()
Radius (a)
Corrugation depth (d)

42 GHz
7.14 mm
31.75 mm
1.785 mm

5
6
7
8

Corrugation periodicity (p)

Corrugation thickness (t)
Groove width (w)
Waveguide material

2.37 mm
1.37 mm
1 mm
Aluminum , copper
, stainless steel

__________________________________________________________________________________________
Volume: 03 Issue: 05 | May-2014, Available @ http://www.ijret.org

221

IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology

eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308

Fig- 5: Electric field in smooth wall circular waveguide for

200 kW

2.1 Simulation of Corrugated Waveguide in HFSS

In this work, low loss circular corrugated waveguide is
designed for 42 GHz Gyrotron source using above design
parameter in HFSS. And this project also shows the
comparison between smooth wall circular waveguide and
circular corrugated waveguide and analyzed their Sparameters using HFSS.

Fig- 6: Magnetic field in smooth wall circular waveguide for

200 kW

Fig-3: Corrugated circular waveguide in HFSS (all

dimensions according to Table 1)

Fig-7: Fundamental HE11 mode in corrugated waveguide

Fig-4: Smooth wall circular waveguide in HFSS

2.2 Simulation Results from HFSS & Discussions

__________________________________________________________________________________________
Volume: 03 Issue: 05 | May-2014, Available @ http://www.ijret.org

222

IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology

S11 (dB)

Fig- 8: Electric field in circular corrugated waveguide for

200kW

eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308

-12
-14
-16
-18
-20
-22
-24
-26
-28

-0.015

S21
corrugated
WG

-0.58

41.8

42

42.2

42.4

42

42.1 42.2 42.3

Frequency (GHz)
Fig-11: Comparison of Return loss (S21) between corrugated
waveguide and smooth wall waveguide
Figures 5 to 9 show the magnitude of electric & magnetic field
in smooth circular waveguide and corrugated waveguide,
electric & magnetic field distibution in smooth circular
waveguide and corrugated waveguide and also shows the
fundamental mode HE11. The electric & magnetic field in
circular corrugated waveguide is higher than the smooth wall
circular waveguide which clearly shown in the above figures.
2
0
-2
-4
-6
-8
-10
-12
-14
-16
-18
-20
-22
-24
-26
-28

S21 simple
cylinder

S11, S21 (dB)

S21 (dB)

0.1
0
-0.1
-0.2
-0.3
-0.4
-0.5
-0.6
-0.7

S11 simple
waveguide

-25.54

41.8 41.9

Fig- 9: Electric field in circular corrugated waveguide for

200kW

S11
corrugated
waveguide

-18.037

Frequency (GHz)
Fig-10: Comparison of Insertion loss (S21) between
corrugated waveguide and smooth wall waveguide

-0.32-0.015
-1.88

S21
corruga
ted
WG
S11
corruga
ted
WG

-5.91

-15
-25.3 -24.9 -25.55

-25.35-25.47

1.65 1.7 1.75 1.8 1.85 1.9 1.95

Corrugation depth d (mm)

Fig-13: Variations of S11 and S21 parameters with
corrugation depth (d) of circular corrugated Waveguide
Fig. 10 and 11 shows the comparison between circular
corrugated waveguide and simple circular waveguide at
42GHz frequency, which shows that the insertion and return
losses are less at such high frequency in corrugated waveguide
compared to simple circular waveguide. If corrugation depth
(d) is varied from its optimized depth
(/4) then
insertion loss (S21) is increased but very little change in the
return loss (S11) which is shown in the fig. 13, also it shows
that insertion loss is more depends on corrugation depth (d).

__________________________________________________________________________________________
Volume: 03 Issue: 05 | May-2014, Available @ http://www.ijret.org

223

IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology

Table 2: Results of variation in material used for the

corrugated waveguide in HFSS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was carried out at Institute for plasma Research,

Although the conductivity of copper is greater than aluminum,

the insertion losses for aluminum is almost same as copper
(shown in Table 2). We have also calculated the change in
temperature T by passing 200kW for 1sec duration for Cu
and Al by using equation
Q = mCT
Where m is mass of sample, C is specific heat capacity and T
is the difference between initial temperature and temperature
after 1 sec duration and found it as 0.00127 C for copper and
0.00178 C for aluminum which is almost same. Based on
additional advantage of mass (101.55gm for Al, 337gm for
Cu) and also due to its low cost and less weight we preferred
aluminum to be used in our design.
Table 3: Summary of design Results (at 42 GHz) in HFSS

Sr.
No.

Results
parameters

Smooth wall
cylinder

Corrugated
waveguide

Insertion loss
S21(dB)

-0.58

-0.015

-18.04

- 25.55

1.3

1.1

Return loss
S11
(dB)
VSWR

eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308

Sr.
No.

Variation in
Material used for
corrugated
waveguide

Insertion
loss S21
(dB)

Return loss
S11
(dB)

Copper

-0.014

-25.56

Aluminum

-0.015

-25.53

Stainless steel

-0.044

-24.73

Gandhinagar, India. The authors are thankful to the director &

ICRH group of Institute for plasma Research for all their
support and guidance.

REFERENCES
[1]. Nanni E.A., Jawla S. K., Shapiro M. A., Woskov P. P.,
Temkin R. J., Low Loss Transmission Lines for High Power
Terahertz Radiation, Plasma Science and Fusion Center,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA,
02139 USA
[2]. Elizabeth J. Kowalski, thesis on Miter Bend Loss and
Higher Order Mode Content Measurements in Overmoded
Millimeter-Wave Transmission Lines, Submitted to the
Massachusetts institute of technology, Cambridge, MA 02139,
United States, September 2010
[3]. http://www.ga.com/straight-corrugated-waveguides
[4] Ansoft HFSS version 15, 3-D electromagnetic Simulation
Software

3. CONCLUSIONS
This work has presented the design and simulation of high
power low loss circular corrugated metallic waveguide for 42
GHz Gyrotron. And also presented the simulation comparison
between smooth wall circular metallic waveguide and
corrugated circular metallic waveguide. Simulation results
shows that the corrugated waveguide have low insertion and
return loss compared to smooth wall circular waveguide.
Insertion loss is affected by varying the corrugation depth (d),
whereas return loss is not that much dependent on corrugation
depth (d). For microwave transmission, material choice is also
important for design.
Corrugated waveguides have proved to be a reliable technique
with regards to their low loss nature and ability to handle high
powers with low losses.

__________________________________________________________________________________________
Volume: 03 Issue: 05 | May-2014, Available @ http://www.ijret.org

224